NOVEMBER 25, 2013
ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL 7
Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
FAMILY OWNED BUSINESS AWARDS
They’re Juiced
By KARI HAMANAKA
Couple Puts Juice Chain on Growth Fast Track
Keep it simple.
That’s the adage Steve and Alexis Schulze
adhere to when it comes to Nekter Juice Bar
Inc., the raw and vegan juice bar concept they
founded in 2010.
Rapid growth had them thinking beyond the
single-store mentality and how they could differentiate to compete with a pack of competitors
that includes Juice It Up!, Jamba Juice and
Robeks, all California-based.
The company, now at more than 20 stores, is
on track to have roughly 30 stores by the end of
this year and an additional 70 units over the next
two years in California and neighboring states.
Nekter was honored Nov. 13 in the large-business category at the 14th annual Family Owned
Business Awards hosted by the Business Journal
and California State University, Fullerton’s
Center for Family Business at the Hyatt Regency Irvine (see related stories, pages 1, 4, 5
and 6).
So far, the company has 26 signed commitments for next year in Phoenix, Austin, Denver
and Northern California. It plans additional
stores for Southern California, where the company has its largest presence, Steve Schulze
said.
Overextending
But, as more juice and smoothie competitors
also focus on greater visibility in the market, he
said the key is to avoid overextending the concept.
“You’ve got to stay true to your principles.
Too many brands try to be everything to everyone,” Schulze said. “What we want to do is stay
very focused and be the In-N-Out of juice.
Make it simple. Make it taste good. Have a limited menu.”
The Business Journal estimates Nekter’s sales
at more than $12 million.
The company plans to open stores in Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Dallas and Arizona this year, and Steve said it will have 450
workers companywide by the end of the year.
The company will open a store in January at
the University of Southern California, and it will
also move into new headquarters in Santa Ana
that month.
Steve and Alexis started the business with the
idea of opening a single store on 17th Street in
Costa Mesa that would “fill in a niche in our
community,” he said.
“We never had any thoughts or ambitions beyond that.”
It wasn’t until after the first day of business
that Alexis mused to Steve, and the wheels
began turning on doing something bigger.
“She said, ‘We’re going to be the Starbucks
of juice, you watch,’ ” Steve said. “We opened
with little fanfare but a lot of traffic and a lot of
word of mouth and people that simply embraced what we were trying to accomplish.”
Funding
When the company reached three stores in
January 2012—all financed by the Schulzes—
it was time to start looking for additional funding sources.
“Finding the initial funding was brutal,”
Schulze said.
The two went through the U.S. Small Business Administration to obtain a line of credit but
burned through that as the company grew. They
later turned to friends and family, and because
the company was so young, banks were reluctant to lend.
It wasn’t until Steve received a call from
The Schulzes: want to “stay very focused and
be the In-N-Out of juice”
Opus Bank Chief Executive Stephen Gordon
midway through last year that things changed
for the better.
The brand had stuck with Gordon because his
wife regularly purchased the company’s
cleanses in their bags. Gordon said he kept tripping over the bags and finally called up the
company to find out more.
He and Gordon didn’t strike a financing deal
immediately, but Gordon suggested the two
keep in touch.
Every other month, Schulze emailed the
banker with a company update and financial information.
A letter of intent was signed six months after
Gordon’s initial call, last December, on a loan
for more than $1.5 million that would help give
Nekter the money to continue its expansion.
The company’s new-store development
budget for next year is more than $3.5 million,
compared to $100,000 budgeted to open its first
store.
It is now focusing on investments in infrastructure, such as new kitchens and additions to
the executive team as the company opens more
doors.
“I don’t think it’s possible to overspend on
your infrastructure,” Schulze said. “We’ve
taken the past few years to learn and really understand our model and what it takes from a
multiunit management standpoint.” ■